CISE Postdoctoral Program: Robust Haptic Display of Dynamical Virtual Environments

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9625756 Colgate, James E. Northwestern University CISE Postdoctoral Program: Robust Haptic Display of Dynamical Virtual Environments This award supports associate Brent R. Gillespie. To provide for direct interaction and to more effectively immerse their users, the designers of virtual environments now have the option to render objects for the haptic (touch) senses, thanks to the new and flourishing field of haptic interface technology. At present, however, the fidelity of haptic display is limited. Restrictions must be placed on the mechanical impedance of the virtual object or exceptional computational power must be demanded of the interface controller lest sustained or even unstable vibrations arise between user and virtual object. This postdoctoral research aims to remove these obstacles by developing simulation and control methods which guarantee the absence of unstable vibrations and other non-physical interactive behaviors. The research begins by noting that the destabilizing effects of sampled-data and computational delays can be fully compensated out if the entire coupled dynamical system is modeled, including the human limb. On-line system identification of the coupled human limb is integrated into the controller design to allow for active behavior on the part of the human. Concurrent theoretical treatments and hardware/software development efforts are employed to extend the methods to dynamical objects and objects which are subject to changes in kinematic constraint. ***